Tag Archives: expansions

There are days when I wish I had jumped on this when it first came out.

Yashima expansions: Legend of the Deep Woods & Legend of the Icy Peaks Coming to Stores in April!

Greetings Gamers,

We wanted to inform you that we have some new tiles arriving in game stores.

Combine these expansions with Yashima to create epic six-player showdowns! Both expansions add new Kami Masters and new Kami, adding new characters and strategies to the core game.

Yashima:Legend of the Icy Peaks

Play as Yuki, armed with ice and a cold heart. Silence your foes by freezing out their karma and surroundings into deadly terrain. Or play as Mitsuo, the blind bard, accompanied by his monkey Saru. Enjoy controlling two miniatures on the board, dancing about your foes from multiple locations. Join forces with the Yeti Kami and make your foes shiver in fear!

Yashima: Legend of the Deep Woods

Play as Dokubaba, the plague hag, stricken with a vile poison. Use your noxious ability to drain your foes health every turn. Or play as Toru, the jolly druid, with the power to magically grow plants as easily as he laughs. Sow seeds in the belly of your enemies, then make them explode for a painful surprise! Use your agility to attack first with the Fox Kami, then use your spirit to play more tome effects, while preventing the effects of your foes.

While we encourage you to support your local retail store, if you do not have a local store, or you are international, the base game of Yashima is available through Target’s website, Amazon, and Greenbrier Games webstore.

Legends from Fairytale is a +2 player expansion which can add a fifth and sixth player to your core game. It is also a standalone game! From their own land and time Mulan, Lu Bu, and Masashi were transported to an arena to fight heros from other places in a cruel game of survival. Joined by another hero, Bruce Lee, they found themselves in a world called Yashima. The Akkorokami Kami and the Foo Dog Kami have come to improve their odds of winning.

*Note: Will only be offered through GBG webstore and at conventions while supplies last.

Along with the Fairytale expansion there will be several other enhancements only available through conventions and through our webstore for Yashima, so head over to our webstore in the next month or two for additional added items. They can only be found while supplies

Who’s got a ticket to ride? This guy! And I’m loving it. I am a captain of industry, transport, and travel. In Ticket To Ride players attempt to complete different train routes to gain points. Players may opt to take additional route cards as the game continues. Longer routes equal more points. More routes equal more points. And hey, you can get points for the longest route!

A player’s choices are simple in Ticket to Ride; take train cards, take route cards, or play train cards and set your adorable little trains on your map and score points. You may only do one of these actions on your turn, so choose wisely.
Why do I like this game? It has a great look. It allows me to play with tiny trains. I can try different strategies every time. Most routes? Longest routes? Do I block my opponents or focus on my own game? I also like that even though it has many expansions I haven’t really felt the need to get any of them. It’s light fun every time, whether we’re playing with our whole family or with friends.
What I don’t like? When my opponents have analysis paralysis(AP). Hurry up! I want my turn! I have a plan! Oh no! You took the train card I wanted. You blocked my route! Ok, I actually like those other things. It makes the game fun. But not the AP. Never the AP.
We’ve had our copy of Ticket to Ride for a couple years and have only now gotten around to acquiring the 1910 expansion which adds full sized train cards (the originals are tiny. you will feel like a giant!) and new routes. The cards also have a great Americana look to them, if you’re into that kind of thing; which I am, occasionally.

If you are looking for a light game with a great look that’s fun for the whole family I definitely recommend Ticket To Ride.

Fireside Games’ Castle Panic just celebrated it’s 5th birthday. They held a Google hangout and some game shops held celebrations of their own. The game deserves to be celebrated. Castle Panic is a cooperative tower defense game. All players win or all players lose. I love this. Most of my favorite games are co-op. I’m not a terribly competitive person, but also I just tend to lose a lot, so games like Castle Panic are great for me.

Castle Panic is for 1-6 players and, as I stated, is a cooperative tower defense game. There are six towers set in a circle with walls surrounding them in the middle of the board, which is divided into three colors with each color containing two segments. Instead of me getting too wordy about the board why don’t you take a look.

There you go. Way easier just to look, right?

Monsters are set in the “Archer” ring at the start of the game and then new monsters are placed in the “Forest” ring at the end of EACH PLAYER”S TURN! “Egads!” I can hear you exclaim. “How will I ever defend my castle!? I’m in a panic!” Worry not. Each player is given a hand of cards with which to dispatch the oncoming onslaught of orcs, goblins, trolls, and specialty boss monsters. “There is a goblin in the Red Archer segment!!!” you wail as you cower on the ground, clutching my leg for comfort. “Not to worry,” I say. “I have a Red Archer card.” I play it and dispatch the puny one point goblin with ease. “Oh no!! But there is an orc in the Green Knight segment!!!” you blubbber, tears of fear streaming down your sallow cheeks. “Bah! Tis nothing,” I say. I play a green knight card dealing one damage to the orc and I laugh triumphantly. “But, but,” you stutter, “It st-still has one p-point on it. It will advance to the Green Swordsman ring at the end of your t-turn.” And then I take a deep relaxing breath and let it out. I pull you up from the ground. I put my hand on your shoulder and look into your eyes. I am simply overflowing with faith and confidence. And then I point to your Green Swordsman card and say, “He’s all yours. It’s your turn to be the hero.”

That’s more or less it. At the end of each player’s turn monsters move in one space and new monsters are placed in the outer “Forest” ring. But that’s not quite all. Because you won’t just be battling monsters. Boulders will roll in from the forest only to stop once they have hit your wall or your tower and destroyed them. Oh no! But the boulder will also kill any monsters that were between it and your wall or tower. Yay! But wait. You’ve drawn a token that puts a plague on all archers and all of you must discard your archer cards. Oh no! But wait. There are no monsters in the archer ring anyway and now you get to draw up to your five card hand at the start of your turn. Yay!

There are a lot of ups and downs in Castle Panic. We have had games end fairly quickly because of bad card draws. We have had failures turned to victories by trading just the right card at the right time. Yes, you can trade cards! Or rather one card, with one player, once during your turn. And you are doing this all together. It’s all about the team. When we play we set all of our cards face up on the table so everyone is in on every decision.

“But, Brandon. I’ve played Castle Panic every day for the last six months.”
“Of course you have. It’s a great game.”
“Well, yes, but I feel like there should be more. After playing it every day for the last six months I mean.”
“Ah. Well, you’re in luck! There’s the Wizard’s Tower Expansion!”

I love this expansion. It replaces one of your towers with a super cool looking wizard’s tower. It adds new monsters and monster bosses. And, it adds a spell deck! Yes, a spell deck. You may discard one card from your hand and retrieve a spell card. Maybe you will get “Chain Lightning” which allows you to do 1 point of damage to all creatures in the same space. Or maybe you pull “Burning Blast” which lets you set monsters on fire. Yes! On fire! The fire does one damage to a monster at the end of each turn. Were you only able to do 2 points of damage to a 3 point creature, but you set it on fire? Awesome. Your turn is over and now it’s dead! Oh, and there are fire tokens. Did I mention that? Here they are. Take a look.

Burn, Hydra, burn!!!

The Wizard’s Tower Expansion also adds standard deck cards. One of my favorites is “Stand Together”(pictured above), which allows you to choose one player to immediately play one card on your turn.

So, there you have it a great cooperative game with a great theme and a fun expansion that doesn’t feel like filler or marketing evilness. And, Fireside Games announced plans for another expansion to come out next year that will introduce “The Dark Titan”!!! I recommend watching the Castle Panic birthday celebration to see all the juicy details and concept are for the next expansion. I’ve jumped the video to 36:38 for you here.

You should try this game if you haven’t already. For those of you who have, please share your tells of defeat and triumph. After all, we’re in this together!